Vegas Day 4: Lake Mead & Valley of Fire

The second part of our day was a lovely drive through Lake Mead National Recreation Area on our way to Valley of Fire State Park.

It was about an hour long drive, but we stopped a few times to take in the lovely views. The mountains rising out of the water were just cool.

 We arrived at the Valley of Fire at 2 and stopped to pay the $10 fee at the east entrance. The park is famous for its red sandstone formations, which are 150 million years old. When the sun shines on them, they look on fire, hence the park's name. The area you can drive through is relatively small, so it was a good afternoon visit. Very doable. 

I most enjoyed seeing the petroglyphs here. They were created by the pre-historic Anasazi sometime between 300 BC and 1150 AD when they occupied the area. The best examples of these can be found at Mouse's Tank and Atlatl Rock.

Our first stop was at the Seven Sisters. This was probably my favorite formation as it was just on the side of the road and seemed to rise out of nowhere.

 Next, we stopped at Mouse's Tank. Here we went on a short hike. It was a little challenging as the path was all sand. My feet sunk in at every step, and I got lots of red sand in my shoes. 

This path offered some really neat up close views of petroglyphs though.

We continued north to the White Domes.

We had a great time on the scenic drive cruising in the convertible with the top down!

On our way back down, we stopped briefly at the Rainbow Vista.

Leaving the park, we stopped at Atlatl Rock. It is named after the atlatl weapon, a notched stick used to throw spears, depicted in the petroglphys.  

Here there is a tall scary metal staircase you can climb to get an up close look at the petroglyphs. I was terrified, but it was worth it.

Here's looking down from the top of the staircase -

 
 Our last stop was at the Beehives. 

Here we set up the tri-pod to get a few shots of us together.

We departed the Valley at 4 pm, while the sun was going down, for our 1 hour journey back to Vegas.

 

Interestingly, while watching Transformers last weekend we also spotted the Autobots driving through Valley of Fire. I always enjoy recognizing places I've visited in movies. I'm a dork. 

Also, I later discovered that tarantulas migrate along here in October. Good thing we didn't visit then. I would have had a meltdown.